05/25/2016

2016 Knapp Venture Competition Winners Announced

By Cheechee Lin

The 35th annual Knapp Venture Competition awarded Kulisha the grand prize of $15,000 for their for-profit startup, which involves working toward food security for the future. Behind the ambitious plan of Kulisha are two passionate founders, Suchintya Dandapat (’17) and Arjun Paunrana, who are interested in developing a new source of protein — the black soldier fly larvae — to feed fish, which will ensure the food supply of emerging markets, particularly in Kenya.

“[This protein source] is pivotal to our country’s growth and that is why we’re here today,” the Kulisha founders said. Kulisha has been working with the Brown University Greenhouse and hatcheries in Kenya to run trials. They project that their revolutionary product will help ensure the food supply of nine billion people in the future, as the world population grows.

The runner up was Ariento, a cybersecurity firm targeting small businesses; they earned a $7,500 prize. Founders Chris Rose (’16) and Meredith Nussbaum (’16) plan on providing managed cybersecurity subscription services for small businesses to prevent data breaches. With experience in military security and consulting, Rose and Nussbaum have already acquired their first customer, and are working on growing their customer base.

The crowd favorite was GoodGaming, a company that believes in gaming for good. With a charitable aspect (proceeds are donated to a charity of the gamer’s choice), GoodGaming hopes to increase gaming engagement through raffles for fans to directly play with their favorite gamers. The team also won the second runner up award, bringing their total prize to $4,000.

The competition included several alumni judges, including Kelsey Doorey (’13), founder and CEO of Vow to be Chic and the 2013 Knapp Venture Competition champion; Aaron Hirschhorn (’05), founder and CEO of DogVacay; and John Tabis (’06), founder and CEO of The Bouqs.

Matthew Schonfield (’14) served as the emcee for the night, keeping the crowd energized with his startup related jokes.

The Knapp Venture Competition is possible because of the generosity of Bud and Betsy Knapp and remains one of the premier academic business plan competitions in Southern California, encouraging UCLA Anderson students to showcase their talents and learn from the insights of successful entrepreneurs and business executives.

Team Information:

FIRST PLACE, $15,000: Kulisha

TEAM: Suchintya Dandapat (’17), Arjun Paunrana

Kulisha is a revolutionary for-profit company increasing food security in emerging markets. Aquaculture is a booming industry that has only recently been adopted by farmers worldwide. Kulisha is developing a high-quality commercial grade fish feed, using protein harvested from Black Soldier Fly larvae and produced using sustainable proprietary technology.

SECOND PLACE, $7,500: Ariento

TEAM: Chris Rose (’16), Meredith Nussbaum (’16)

Ariento offers managed cybersecurity subscription services to small business owners, protecting them from data breaches. The company is founded on the belief that small businesses want cybersecurity, but lack the resources and expertise to adequately protect themselves. Accordingly, Ariento provides a combined hardware and software solution for 24/7/365 security monitoring at an affordable price.

GoodGaming was created to allow any consumer a chance to play with their favorite video game celebrity while supporting a good cause. We created an avenue where fans can interact at a deeper level with the celebrities that they watch every day. For each gaming session, fans can buy raffle tickets that democratize the opportunity to participate in unique gaming experiences that they cannot attain anywhere else. The proceeds from the raffle are divided among the video game celebrity, charity of the celebrity’s choice and GoodGaming.

R+D Brew Lab is Los Angeles’ first “open brewery,” where customers can enjoy the homebrew experience without the homebrew hassle. Our first location is planned for the Arts District area of downtown Los Angeles. At our store, customers can brew their own beer, enjoy local craft beers at our bar, learn how to brew at one of our many class offerings, or attend events where they can get to know other craft beer aficionados and professionals.

MedVille seeks to disrupt the medical market with a scalable solution that will bring world-class medical expertise to foreign patients and decrease the burden on doctors, while reducing second opinion response time from 3 to 10 days to 24 hours. MedVille is an integrated multi-sided second opinion online platform, with patients seeking second opinion consulting on one side and doctors/ hospitals seeking to treat them on the other.